


Heirlooms

by Mareel



Series: Always [61]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Christmas, Destroy Ending, Epistolary, Established Relationship, Family, M/M, ME Holiday 2016, Post-Canon, Post-Mass Effect 3, Presents, Vancouver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 01:52:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9050431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/pseuds/Mareel
Summary: "Somehow I knew it was time to pass them along..."





	

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place approximately two years after the end of the war, at their home in Vancouver. It is Shepard's voice. 
> 
> It does make reference to events of the previous Christmas (their first together) which are part of [Twelve Days](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5465354) and [Little Fir Tree](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/me_holidays/works/5498444)
> 
> This was written for Day 3 of Mass Effect Holiday Special 2016. The prompt was _Gifts_

 

“Hey, Kaidan! Something smells really good!”

Kaidan laughs and looks up from where he’s crouched by the fireplace, tending a fire that seems to be burning briskly already. “Could be the cookies just out of the oven… or the firewood… or the Christmas tree. Take your pick!”

I cross the living room to join him, sinking down onto a floor pillow in front of the fire and reaching a hand to Kaidan to join me. “Could be all of those… or could be you… you’re wearing a few pine needles in your hair. Must be left over from hanging the garland and wreaths.”

He runs a hand over his hair self-consciously, shaking loose a few of those needles. He leans in to kiss me, murmuring,. “Glad you got back home before the snow starts up again.”

“Hey, I’m getting better at driving a ground car in snow… handles a lot better than the Mako on Noveria!”

“Don’t remind me! Oh, you got a package delivered earlier.”

“Here? Not many people know this address. I only give out the postal box number when I order anything.”

“Same here… must be from someone who knows us pretty well.”

“Oh, it’s from Mom! She never asked me for an address or mentioned that she was going to send something. I’m curious.”

Kaidan takes it from my hands. “Don’t you want to wait till Christmas to open a present?”

“Nope. Not this one. Turn it over. It’s written right there on the outside - _DO open this right away_.”

“No it’s not! Really?” He’s laughing as he hands it back to me. “Well, okay then! Admiral’s orders!” 

“Don’t let her hear you calling her that. Said it embarrassed her when Cortez did it last year when he shuttled her to the orchard on Christmas day.” 

“She was in uniform then. He probably figured he’d better be respectful.”

“Could be. I’d bet money that she told him to ‘ _Just call me Shepard_ ’ but that probably felt somehow wrong to him. Anyway, let’s see what she sent us… it’s also labeled _Fragile, Handle with Care_.”

Kaidan huffs a laugh. “Well, my mom labels her cookies like that when she sends them to us. Maybe Hannah made Christmas cookies.”

My turn to laugh. “No, let’s hope not. I never knew her to do any baking.” I continue unwrapping carefully, peeling off the outer packaging to reveal an unwrapped box. “Hey, there are two wrapped boxes inside this one. One of them has your name on it.”

Kaidan shakes his cautiously. “At least the boxes are too small for the ugly Christmas sweaters she likes to order for you on the extranet.”

“Shhssh… don’t even think about that. Maybe she forgot this year.” 

My own gift still wrapped, I watch Kaidan as he carefully slips the ribbon off and finds a way to open it without ripping the green foil paper. 

“I like watching you unwrap packages...”

Kaidan half-snorts a laugh before catching a quick breath as he notices the path my eyes are taking from his face down his chest toward the soft yoga pants that don’t hide much of his interest in that kind of unwrapping. 

His voice is husky as he fiddles with the ribbon and paper. “Me too… find me later!” 

Carefully opening the box, he lifts out a small glass Christmas ornament. He lightly traces a fingertip over the red and gold glass sailboat with delicate wire rigging. “This is really nice! It looks old...”

“Yeah, it is. That little boat was old when I first saw it. I must have been like five years old then. It had been her grandmother’s.”

“And she wants to give it to _me_? I’d think she’d want to keep it in the family.”

“You are family, Kaidan.”

“But she barely knows me. Maybe she really wanted to pass it along to you, but didn’t want to just get me socks or something.”

I lean across the wrapping paper to kiss him. “I’m sure she knew what she was doing.”

“Okay, you know her better than I do. Now open yours, John!”

I’m not nearly as careful as Kaidan in package unwrapping, but I get the job done. I do take some care in opening the inner box. It’s another vintage ornament, a small glass ball, midnight blue, etched with tiny silver stars. “This one was always my favorite. Mom only had the two of these and she always unpacked them so carefully every year to decorate our little tree.”

“I remember you mentioning that your family had a little tabletop tree everywhere you lived. These are small enough to suit a small tree… like ours.”

He nods toward the bay window alcove where this year’s little fir tree still awaits decorating. We’d found it at the same tree farm as we got our first tree last year - the one that is now planted outside in our yard. We kept this one outside until now, just before Christmas, so it wouldn’t have to spend too long indoors. 

“Yeah… like ours. I’m surprised to see I guess i didn’t even know she still had them. She’s served on several ships since then.”

“Sounds like she must have carried them with her in her personal allowance.” 

“Yeah… or she had a storage locker somewhere… I doubt that though. She just never collected much stuff. But after all these years, why would she part with them now?”

“Look, there’s a note folded into the bottom of your box.”

I’d almost missed seeing that. It’s handwritten and addressed to both of us, so I read it aloud.

_Dear John and Kaiden -_

_I want to wish you both a wonderful Christmas. I loved the little tree you had last year and thought these would look nice on your trees in the coming years. There are a lot of memories that go along with them, but somehow I knew it was time to pass them along. One for each of my sons._

_Kaiden, the little sailboat is for your love of English Bay. Your mother told me that you and your father used to watch the sailboat races there on summer evenings. And John, I know you always loved the one with stars. You used to ask if the pattern was a real star cluster…_

_Take care and I’ll talk to you soon. I’m still hoping to be able to attend your New Year’s Eve party!_

_With love, Hannah._

Kaidan has carefully placed the little boat back in the box and he scoots close enough to wrap an arm around my shoulders, squeezing gently. He looks like he’s trying to say something but it’s not quite coming out. 

I turn to face him and cup his cheek with my hand. After leaning into the touch for a long moment, he takes my hand and presses a kiss into the palm, closing my fingers over it. It’s an old gesture between us… he tells me he did that when I was still unconscious in the hospital. 

He wipes the back of his other hand across his eyes and takes a long breath. “Now I know how you feel when my Mom calls you her son. My family just got bigger.”

“Yeah. Like that.” 

“Looks like we have some more decorating to do.” But he makes no move to get up. 

“It can wait, Kaidan. Stay with me here for a bit… enjoy the fire.”

“Among other things… “

 


End file.
